3 Must-Try Marketing Methods in 2025 (for Authors, Artists and Creatives!)
This week, let's chat about 3 marketing methods you should try this year and beyond! These 3 methods are a huge opportunity to reach new people in free and low-cost ways. We'll talk about social media marketing, email marketing, podcasting, the costs associated with each and how to get started with them.
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Social Media Marketing
Let's go ahead and dive in to the first method, which is going to be social media marketing. Now, obviously, social media has been a popular marketing method for years, but I want to tell you why it's still something that I’m dedicated to teaching and dedicated to using myself as an author.
And that's because we're in a free wave of advertising. Whenever we think about how creatives had to market 20 years ago or 30 years ago or hundreds of years ago, they didn’t have access to a worldwide community of people for free like we do now. I know social media can be frustrating and it can feel time consuming or overwhelming.
But when I just sit back and think about the fact that I'm able to reach people for free around the world who are a part of my target audience, I have to think, “I'm a little lucky to be alive at this time and have a business at this time.”
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by it, I'm not saying you need to like bow down and be grateful to these platforms, because I know that they have their problems and, ethically, I'm not a huge fan of some of the decisions either, but I do think that it's an amazing way to get our voices heard and get our products out there.
So, let's talk about the cost associated with social media marketing. Firstly, if you're doing organic marketing, meaning that you're not paying for ads, there is no cost associated directly with posting on social media. It's free.
There's a cost of time, though, and it especially takes more time in the beginning until you get used to it and know what works well for you. Aside from that, you do need a phone and internet, which a lot of us have. But typically, if you're filming content, you need a newer phone that has a decent camera to it. Nothing fancy in terms of equipment—I didn't even have a tripod for years. I just set my phone up on anything that I could lean it against, like my laptop or a candle or all the things.
If you want to learn more about how to pick out and set up your social media account, check out the corresponding YouTube video by clicking the link under the picture at the top of the page.
Email Marketing
According to optinmonster.com, over 4.5 billion people use email, and they also report that 88% of email users check their inboxes multiple times per day. I know I'm certainly in that camp of checking it multiple times per day. So, this is an amazing opportunity to reach your people, to get in front of them and show up in their inboxes with nurturing content that shows that you relate to them and you connect with them.
I also discovered that 59% of consumers say that emails that sell in their inbox influence their purchasing decisions. So, people are checking their inboxes expecting marketing emails. It's a huge opportunity!
Now, you may have heard that you own the email list and it can't be taken from you, which is a benefit to email over social media. I agree with that to an extent.
Social media can get deleted or hacked. Platforms can decide to shut down or get shut down and we've lost our followers that we've built. But there are also other factors to consider, like deliverability. We want to send good emails that people respond to and click on. If we're sending spammy emails, our email list can actually be negatively impacted and the number of people who receive our emails can be negatively impacted.
When it comes to email marketing, there are costs associated with it. One, you'll want an email marketing platform to send your emails through. You can't send emails like this through Gmail, Yahoo, whatever your regular personal email address is. My favorite is Mailerlite, but Substack is popular., and there are plenty out there to choose from. Both Mailerlite and Substack are free to start as well, although there are some costs associated as you grow.
Once you choose one, another cost is having a domain, which can be fairly inexpensive. I pay anywhere from $20 to $40 a year for my various domains that I have. It allows you to send an email from your professional domain, which looks more professional and is what these platforms want. And then the time of writing emails and sending them as well can be another cost—cost of time. However, we see a higher ROI typically with email marketing than other forms of marketing.
Podcasting
This is one that I am so excited about. I post episodes on YouTube, and then I post them across podcast platforms to increase my reach and attract people who trust me because they're able to hear me talk and teach. They know what to expect from me, and this is so powerful when it comes to growing your businesses and making sales.
Some stats for you real quick:
· Podcast statistics say that over 584 million people listen to podcasts—and this is going to continue to grow year-over-year.
· 57% of listeners have visited a website after hearing an ad in a podcast
· 28% have made a purchase from a podcast.
So, this can go one of two ways. You can guest on other people's podcasts and get in front of their audience, which is amazing and something I highly recommend, or you can start your own podcast.
With guesting and hosting your own, there are some costs. You typically want to have a good mic—I use a Blue Yeti, which is a more affordable option that I used when I started off, and I've continued to use it. It's lasted me for years. And if you're doing video podcasts, specifically hosting your own, I recommend a decent camera, but you can use your smartphone.
If you would like to guest on podcasts, which I definitely recommend because you're getting in front of new audiences without having to focus on posting constantly to grow your own, first you will research other podcasts in your niche. Then you'll prepare for your interviews so you nail them. And when that podcast goes live, that's an opportunity to get in front of new people, get your name out there, your business out there, your products out there.
There's also hosting your own podcast, so whenever you start with this, you'll want to pick your title for your podcast, create cover art, pick your hosting platform, and then distribute your podcast to different platforms, which is just a onetime thing. Once that's set up and you upload your episodes, they’re automatically distributed. But you'll also want to know how to tell engaging stories and learn how to pitch your products in your own podcast—or other people's podcasts gently, because we don't want to oversell in these guest episodes that we're doing.
But we do want to make sure that we're set up for success here so that your time isn't wasted going on these podcasts and not actually incorporating your products into them. All of these can work so well together, and they can also work well individually.
Now what?
Firstly, do not start doing all three of these at once. Pick one platform and focus on it for 90 days minimum to start getting traction and learn what you're doing, build a strategy, and have some data to look back on and optimize. A lot of times we start something, we don't see results right away, and we quit before we have the chance to actually grow and improve.
In the Creative’s Content Club, this is what we do. We give you access to all three success paths: social media, email marketing, and podcasting. We ask you to focus for 90 days on one success path. You don't have to, because you get access to everything right away, but this focus is what we found has the most success.
You'll get clarity on that success path, on your strategy, on your branding, on your messaging. You'll gain confidence by learning exactly what you need by using our workbooks and our monthly plans that are like an easy button for marketing. You get social media templates. You get email marketing templates. You get your podcast pitch templates that you can land guest spots on podcasts.
All of this is inside the Creative’s Content Club in addition to the support you get from me and our community by asking me questions in our Facebook group. You’ll also get feedback in our monthly content compass sessions on what you're doing.
And honestly, there is no place like it out there that has the level of content that we have, that has the templates that we have for a high value, low-cost marketing membership. I would love to see you inside. It is newly refreshed with all of this content that I'm so excited for you to go through.
So, you can head to marketingbyshelby.com/club if you'd like to join us, and I would love to help you inside.
Thanks so much for reading, and if you want to here more on this, check out my YouTube video or podcast (linked in the buttons below the image at the top of this page. I'll see you in the next one!